KATMAI NATIONAL PARK AND PRESERVE, Alaska — Kim Spanjol has seen gorillas in Congo and
orangutans in Borneo. But for a honeymoon with her husband, Jim O’Brien, she planned a trip to
Katmai National Park and Preserve in remote Alaska, where they started seeing brown bears the
minute their floatplane landed on the beach.

“There’s a bear in the water, and there’s a bear coming down the beach,” said Spanjol, a
psychologist from New York. “And then we were coming in to eat, and there was a bear running by,
and there were three bears just over there by the river.”

About 10,000 people make the difficult trek to the preserve each summer to see the bears, some
staying at a small lodge or the campground at Brooks Camp, others flying in from elsewhere in
Alaska for the day. The park — which, at more than 4 million acres, is a little bigger than
Connecticut — is on the Alaska Peninsula, about 250 miles southwest of Anchorage. Brooks Camp is
accessible only by air.

At peak bear-viewing season, the end of July, as many as 70 adult bears plus cubs may be within
a 1-mile area of Brooks Camp. It’s not uncommon to see brown bears running around the camp, dodging
humans as the bruins playfully chase one another.

What draws the bears here are salmon running in the Brooks River. The bears stand patrol at
Brooks Falls, about a mile walk from Brooks Camp, on the lookout for jumping salmon. When they snag
one, they usually polish it off on a sandbar or the river bank — unless an aggressive male brown
bear tries to steal it.

Bear-viewing stands have been built at Brooks Falls, an area about 200 yards downstream, called
the riffles, and at the lower river, which is prime viewing area in September.

The flight from Anchorage is about a three-hour trip, and floatplane flights are also available
from Homer or Kodiak. A round-trip flight can cost as much as $795 from Anchorage.

There are few places to sleep at Brooks Camp, and you have to book months ahead. The private
Brooks Lodge has 16 rooms, with four beds each. Mike Wheeler of Kansas City, Kan., said that the
lodge cost him $615 a night, not prohibitive if you split it four ways, but that the amenities and
wildlife make up for the costs.

Another option is the park service’s campsite ($12 per person per night). The campground — which
is enclosed by an electric fence — can hold 60 people a night, and spaces go on sale Jan. 5.

Bear orientation for visitors to Katmai is mandatory. They’re told they can’t give bears food,
carry any liquid but water or leave things such as backpacks on the ground. They also learn how to
act when they meet a bear and how much space to give one.

Rangers patrol Brooks Camp with walkie-talkies and will stop human traffic until bears leave the
area.

Only twice have bears intentionally made contact with humans since Brooks Camp opened about
1950, said Roy Wood, chief of interpretation at Katmai, although they occasionally knock people
over while running.

Another cool attraction in Katmai involves a 23-mile bus ride ($96 a person, with lunch) for a
stunning view of the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes.